Question

Business Communications: Write a 4-5 page report on a trend in business that you’ve observed, and highlight at least the main finding. For example, from the rising cost of textbooks to the online approach to course content, textbooks are a significant issue for students. Draw from your experience as you bring together sources of information to illustrate a trend. Use at least four sources and include references. A visual aid(s) are recommended.

Answer 1

The textbook prices have increased twice the rate of inflation over the last two decades in the US. According to research studies, the reason behind the rise in the prices are ... Firstly, the revision cycle of the text books have now got reduced to three to four years, regardless of whether any updation was required in the earlier editions. Alternatively, to reduce the cost of purchasing the new books, students are forced to sell their books to the booksellers at the end of the session and in-turn purchase new books. Thus the market for old book has shown a growth.

Secondly, the enhanced offerings of additional instructional materials as software and workbooks have added to the rise in the cost of books. Today the books are available in both the bundled and unbundled versions.

The other factors that contribute to the purchase decision is that faculty members choose to assign their own textbooks or textbook with their vested interest to students. They, then have little concern or regard to the cost of the book. It is the students who have to bear the cost of the textbook.

On the other hand, the e-book business has been growing in double digits. The reason is that the cost of the book is at 50% as compared to the conventional books. The difference is majorly due to the printing and publishing costs, easier updating, convenient for readers to make e-notes, search and bookmark. the awareness of the end users and the usage of e-books with faculty members, researchers, librarians have also registered a significant growth.

There has been a shift in the preference of the students from conventional textbook to the new e-book... the focus has shifted to creating and adopting Open Educational resources... as they provide access to retain, reuse, remix and redistribute the materials as syllabi, lecture notes, curriculum, etc...

students shifted away from purchasing lifetime access and toward renting e-textbooks to save money...The focus has swiftly shifted from publisher-produced printed or electronic format materials to creating and adopting open educational resources (OERs). At their most basic definition, OERs are materials that are openly licensed, giving users the legal permission to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute the material.⁶ Examples of OERs range from comprehensive materials such as curriculum and textbooks to individual videos, syllabi, lecture notes, and tests... This resource has become very popular with the students, the faculty members and education institutes as these resources are freely available on the open source application.

The factors the researchers could observe are that the UG students have shown a significant use of e-textbooks. The use and availability of e-book over the mobile services have made it convenient for them to access and use the e-textbooks. The other factors that influenced the use of e-books are the "low cost" and the availability to read off-line,

The role of instructor or faculty is very vital in the selection of the medium of learning. The e-textbook have registered a growth if it has been recommended by the faculty member by providing technical instructions or modeled the pedagogical use.

The use of e-textbook is observed in the general subjects more than the technical subjects in the current context. the use will further grow in the future but only with the support of the university faculty members or instructors delivery methods.